StartupCentral

Canaan Partners hosted a breakfast roundtable with over 30 angel investors on December 22 in Mumbai. The objective was to brainstorm on constructive ways in which the potentially large angel community in India can engage better with young entrepreneurs. Alok Mittal, general partner, Canaan Partners, sums up the roundtable. Also check out his thoughts on a potential investment structure for angels at Venturewoods here. Mittal has been at the head of an initiative to create an informal forum to encourage more angel investing in the country.

Making Angel Investing Work

By Alok Mittal

Canaan Partners hosted a roundtable discussion with over 30 angel investors. This note summarizes the key discussion items.

Individuals & Groups

The participants included members from angel groups (Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels, each of which have made 18 investments till date) as well as individual angel investors. Many participants also reported that they invest both individually and through these groups. Read the full story

Early stage or growth, raising capital has been tough for almost all companies since last October. Declining venture capital and private equity investment numbers over the last several months are evidence — see the latest Grant Thornton report here. For startups, especially, raising venture capital is a challenge even in fair weather. Each stage, from seed through Series A and B, comes along with its own unique hurdles. “There are investment and operational issues at each stage, both for the entrepreneur and the investor. We need to engage in a dialogue on those issues,” says Sateesh Andra, venture partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, flagging off the underlying theme for TiE-ISB Connect 2009, scheduled for October 22 and 23 in Hyderabad.

The forum, in its main theme, is asking ‘The Crisis Will Pass…Will You?’ It is a pertinent question. Before the current economic downturn is out, several startups as well as a few venture capital firms, will bite the dust. And going by the rumblings that one is beginning to hear more and more in venture capital circles, the dust is going to kick up quite a storm (more on that in a later post).

Interestingly, the organizers have decided to address funding issues not only at the seed and early stages but also at the growth stage. Read the full story